Kase.o

The violinist Ara Malikian (Lebanon, 1968) has a new album, quite different from everything he has recorded so far. "Royal Garage" is the title chosen to name a double album in which for the first time he dares to sing and in which he has surrounded himself with a large group of national and international artists such as Andrés Calamaro, Enrique Bunbury , Estrella Morente, Franco Battiato, Kase O, Pablo Milanés and Serj Tankian, from System of a Down. Malikian picks up the violin on all subjects to bring his sensibility. as we are used to, although on this occasion the audience to which it is addressed is not that of the Royal Albert Hall or the Royal Theater of Madrid. although you can also get in this more popular record that listeners hold their breath, enthralled by the virtuosity of this genius of the rubbed strings: "It's a lot of things but all with my own vision. There is flamenco, tango, rock, classical, jazz. … that of Serj Tankian is directly heavy. But none in the traditional way. It's all my way, with wonderful companions who have lent themselves to help me, "explains the artist.

The multi-national band The Samurai of Prog is back with a double-album, putting its own spin on classic Progressive rock tunes plus new compositions. Performances and recordings are of the highest quality, and the CDs are accompanied by a beautiful forty-page booklet. This is a lovely homage to many of Progressive rock music's great works, some well-known and some lesser-known gems. We also see the band maturing into their own identity, as this, their second album, finds them penning fresh original tunes as well. The Samurai of Prog is joined by a bevy of guest artists, making "Secrets Of Disguise" a rich and textured feast for the ears. Guests include Jon Davison (Yes), Roine Stolt (The Flower Kings), Guy Leblanc (Camel), Robert Webb (England), Phideaux Xavier, Kamran Alan Shikoh (Glass Hammer), Linus Kase (Anglagard) and many more!

Thomas Hardin Trio is a trio from Japan, performing jazz arrangements of compositions of various genres - from classical to Japanese pop music. The group's repertoire includes Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Kuwata Keisuke, Yosui Inoue, and Hikaru Utada. The name Thomas Hardin is fictitious, in fact the leader of the trio is Junichi Kamiyama - arranger and producer. The trio's main line-up includes pianist Haruki Mino, bassist Tohru Kase, drummers Milton Tomita and Yasushi Ichihara.

This is the Swedish duo Christian Riveli (vocals) and Linus Käse (keyboards), added with band members on vocals, solo - and rhythm guitar, bass and drums and guest-musicians on violin, acoustic guitar, background vocals and electric guitar (Kerry Livgren from Kansas on the track "Ground Zero"). The six compositions (between 6 and 10 minutes) contain lots of flowing shifting moods and strong soli on guitar, keyboards and violin. All tracks are quite complex and very rich orchestrated, very good musicianshiip on every second of this album. "Mayden Voyage" is a solid album in symphonic prog scene.

German act ARGOS initially started out as a solo project by multi-instrumentalist and composer Thomas Klarmann, an experienced musician who started out in prog and fusion bands in the 70's. He abandoned the progressive part of the music scene more and more as time went by though, concentrating on jazz, but when he discovered the new progressive movement in the mid 90's spearheaded by acts like Flower Kings and Spock's Beard, the passion for making and performing progressive music returned as well. A chance meeting with Robert Gozon eventually lead to the formation of Superdrama, a four man strong band still active. Klarmann wished to explore a broader style of music than what he could do in this band though, and started composing songs for a solo project in 2005.